PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils completed their series with the Astros tonight. Cliff Lee got the start as he looked to get back on track following a rash of rough outings. This one came perilously close to being another rough outing, but in the end he actually pitched fairly well, allowing just 4 runs, only 3 of them earned, on 7 hits in 5 and 2/3rd's innings. Unfortunately for Lee, the emotionally drained and slightly shorthanded Phils, with Chase Utley and Shane Victorino taking the night off, couldn't come up come with any offense. So Lee left in the 6th inning with the team behind 4-1. Houston then added another run in the 7th, to make it 5-1. It was still 5-1 as the Phils came to the plate in the bottom of the 9th. There they almost came up with a miracle comeback. Back to back 2 out hits, a single by Jayson Werth, and a double by Pedro Feliz, cut the lead to 5-3 and brought the tying run to the plate in the person of Andy Tracy. After working the count in his favor, Tracy ripped a single to get the winning run on base for Miguel Cairo. Cairo got a fastball right down the middle, that he could hammer, but he didn't quite get it right and instead lined out to Micheal Bourn to finish off the 5-3 loss. Brett Myers returned to action tonight finally, and pitched well, allowing 1 run on 3 hits in 1 inning of work. It's hard to tell if he's quite ready to go for the playoffs just yet, but it would seem that if Charlie allows him to pitch a few more times between now and the end of the season he should be ready to go. The Phils racked up 13 hits on the night, but they also left 12 men on base. They'll have to clean that up if they want to succeed in the postseason. Apparently J.C Romero isn't quite healthy yet after all. He felt sore after his last appearance, about a week ago and the Phils just aren't sure if he's ready to pitch every other day again as they might need him to in the playoffs. Anyway so the Phils drop to 92-67 overall and at this point sit 1 game behind the Dodgers for best record in the NL.